All Russian airborne troops equipped Verba Manpads 82707173

Posted On
Thursday, 27 July 2017 14:22

Defense & Security News - Russia

All Russian airborne troops are now equipped with Verba Manpads

All of Russian Airborne Troops’ airborne and air assault divisions have been rearmed with new Verba man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), and currently these systems are being delivered to separate air assault brigades as planned, Airborne Troops Commander Colonel General Andrei Serdyukov reported.

"The supply of the fourth-generation Verba MANPADS to Airborne Troops is being completed. To date, all airborne divisions have been equipped with these systems and separate air assault brigades are being equipped with them as planned," he said on the eve of the 87th anniversary of Russian Airborne Troops.

According to Serdyukov, the Verba MANPADS is able to destroy tactical aircraft, attack helicopters, cruise missiles and remotely piloted vehicles in head-on and tail-chase engagements when the target visually observed, including in clutter and jamming environments, day or night. These systems provide the head-on firing capability against low-infrared-signature targets at the maximum engagement range at and extremely low altitudes, the commander listed the Verba’s strengths.

He noted that, unlike their predecessors, the new short-range systems offer the enhanced capabilities and provide high target kill effectiveness despite heavy optical countermeasures. Compared with the previous generation MANPADS, the Verba has a several times larger engagement area for low-infrared-signature targets and dozen times higher immunity against powerful pyrotechnic decoy flares.

While the procedure for using the new MANPADS is similar to that for previous generation systems, the number of the Verba missiles expended per target is fewer and the operating temperature range is extended to minus 50 degrees.